Hierarchically structured ceramics by high-precision nanoparticte casting of wood

The basic strategy for developing nanostructured materials with controlled morphologies, and the use of molecular moieties, assemblies, or even larger structures as scaffolds or templates for directing structural growth are discussed. A wide range of biological templates such as DNA, surface layer proteins, viruses, microorganisms, bioskeletons are utilized for this purpose. The most challenging approach is a full reproduction of complex biological materials from the macroscopic tissue level down to nanometer-scale features across all levels of hierarchy, from a materials science perspective. And, wood is a highly sophisticated and multihierarchical material and is therefore perfectly suited as a template. There are four distinct length scales of hierarchical ordering that can be identified such as the macroscopic level of tissue structure, the macroscopic level of cell structure, the submicroscopic level of cell-wall organization, and the nanoscopic level of cell-wall polymer assembly.